Jean-Jacques Annaud | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/jean-jacques-annaud
The latest news and comment on film director Jean-Jacques Annauden-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017Tue, 26 Sep 2017 21:07:42 GMT2017-09-26T21:07:42Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
China enters Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Wolf Totem into Oscars 2016 racehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/22/china-jean-jacques-annaud-wolf-totem-oscars-race
<p>Following its 2015 choice, Philippe Muyl’s The Nightingale, China has once again entered a film by a French director for best foreign language film </p><p>For the second year running, China has nominated a film by a French director <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-confirms-wolf-totem-as-825676">as its official submission for the best foreign language film Academy award</a>. Wolf Totem, adapted from the popular 2004 novel by Lu Jiamin (writing pseudonymously as Jiang Rong), was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, and follows The Nightingale, directed by Philippe Muyl, which was China’s official entry for the 2015 race.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/02/wolf-totem-review-montreal-world-film-festival">Wolf Totem review – lupine thrills and pack mentality</a> </p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/30/jean-jacques-annaud-interview-wolf-totem">Jean-Jacques Annaud: 'People who make films are in danger every day'</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/22/china-jean-jacques-annaud-wolf-totem-oscars-race">Continue reading...</a>Oscars 2016Jean-Jacques AnnaudFilmOscarsCultureChinaAsia PacificAwards and prizesWorld newsFilm adaptationsBooksTue, 22 Sep 2015 15:43:30 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/22/china-jean-jacques-annaud-wolf-totem-oscars-racePhotograph: Allstar/Mars DistributionPhotograph: Allstar/Mars DistributionAndrew Pulver2015-09-22T15:43:30ZJean-Jacques Annaud: 'People who make films are in danger every day'https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/30/jean-jacques-annaud-interview-wolf-totem
The director on the joy of China, his affinity with Inner Mongolian wolves, and why embracing their bestiality might help keep people from therapy<p>As soon as he finishes his coffee in Cannes, Jean-Jacques Annaud will take a plane to Paris, then another to Beijing, then a third to Inner Mongolia. There he will drive for six hours to Ölgii and the set of his new film, a 1960s-set steppes epic. It's a monthly commute, one the 69-year-old has been making for three years since he started pre-production on the film, likely to be finished next year ("No fatigue! It's like love! You climb mountains, you cross oceans"). When he arrives, there will be no need to freshen up: a 75lb wolf will lacquer him in saliva the second he steps from the car.</p><p>This is Cloudy, one-time alpha male of the 30-strong pack. "We have a very extraordinary relationship," says Annaud, face full of affection. "With the new king, Parker, there is not the same love." Last week they were shooting a scene which required a wolf in a hole. The task, naturally, fell to Parker. "But he was very frightened. And all the other wolves were thinking: 'Is our new king weak or brave?' The prime minister [Parker's deputy] offered to go first, but after much hesitation he got into the hole, peed in it and got out, very proud. All the courtiers were licking his face. Cloudy was witnessing the circus and I could see him thinking: 'Yeah. I've been there. Don't trust them! Next day they will kill you.'"</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/30/jean-jacques-annaud-interview-wolf-totem">Continue reading...</a>Jean-Jacques AnnaudFilmCultureCannes 2013ChinaTibetAnimalsThu, 30 May 2013 19:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/30/jean-jacques-annaud-interview-wolf-totemPhotograph: Bai LongJean Jacques Annaud on the set of his film, Wolf Totem. Photograph: Bai LongPhotograph: Bai LongJean Jacques Annaud on the set of his film, Wolf Totem. Photograph: Bai LongCatherine Shoard2013-05-30T19:00:01ZBlack Gold – reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/23/black-gold-review
If there's going to be a cinematic Arab Spring, Jean-Jacques Annaud's clunky oil epic isn't it<p>There's undoubtedly a good film to be made out of the scramble for oil in the Arabian desert in the 1920s – but this, for all its herculean efforts, is not it. Touted as the Arab breakthrough into the international cinema arena, Black Gold pits Mark Strong and Antonio Banderas against each other as warring emirs torn between the traditional ways and modern temptations: A Prophet's Tahar Rahim plays the next generation – son of the former, but hostage to the latter – whose bookish charisma not only wins him the attentions of a pouting Freida Pinto, but also unites the peninsula's warring tribes and stands up for a humane, tolerant form of Islam, too. But despite its honourable intentions, Black Gold hits the ground with a terrible clunking thud, its broken-English dialogue squeezing the life out of it practically from the off. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud injects proceedings with many a dramatic camel charge, and laces them with vistas of shimmering sand dunes and picturesque local attire, but he can do little about the fundamentally creaky nature of the enterprise. Black Gold feels like it could have been made in the 1950s; we have come to expect a little more from our blockbusters.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/23/black-gold-review">Continue reading...</a>Jean-Jacques AnnaudAction and adventureDramaWorld cinemaAntonio BanderasFilmCultureThu, 23 Feb 2012 21:50:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/23/black-gold-reviewPhotograph: PRFundamentally creaky … Black Gold.Photograph: PRFundamentally creaky … Black Gold.Andrew Pulver2012-02-23T21:50:00ZJean-Jacques Annaud's Arabian frightshttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/21/jean-jacques-annaud-black-gold
Jean-Jacques Annaud was making a film about oil wars in the desert. Then the Arab spring started, his crew were evacuated, and he had to explain why he had 300 guns<p>One day in 2010, over tea&nbsp;in&nbsp;Barcelona, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/antonio-banderas" title="">Antonio Banderas</a> took <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/14/jean-jacques-annaud-kashmir" title="">Jean-Jacques Annaud</a> firmly by the wrist, looked deep into the French director's eyes and said: "I&nbsp;have always dreamed of playing an Arab. Let me be in your film." It's tempting to imagine Banderas saying these words in the same way he says "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emhSjFTRuLo&amp;feature=fvst" title="">I&nbsp;am Puss – in boots!</a>" in Shrek, before making his pupils dilate seductively. But it probably wasn't quite like that.</p><p>Annaud was scouring Europe and the Middle East to cast <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD35PpytFR0" title="">Black Gold</a>, which tells the freighted and fruity story of two Arab kings who unsheath their ancestral scimitars in the 1930s and do battle over a strip of desert, under which some of the world's biggest oilfields have just been discovered. It was a charged historical moment. Arabia was, if we believe Annaud's take, balanced between old-world innocence, a place of gorgeous flowing clothes, harems straight out of The 1001 Nights, and gurning camels at every oasis – and a new world in which Arabs got rich and ended up bankrolling everything from <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/feb/17/carlos-tevez-apology" title="">Carlos Tevez</a>'s petulance at Manchester City to the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHbMwPLzuAo" title="">Harrods cheese counter</a> and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dubai-information.info/palm_island_dubai.jpg&amp;imgrefurl=http://www.dubai-information.info/palm_island_dubai.html&amp;h=352&amp;w=539&amp;sz=70&amp;tbnid=6QJHZdHsuj7EtM:&amp;tbnh=90&amp;tbnw=138&amp;prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpalm%2Bislands%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&amp;zoom=1&amp;q=palm+islands&amp;docid=ovigTYProtsihM&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=bZdDT_DkGaGg0QXr0JmPDw&amp;ved=0CGcQ9QEwAg&amp;dur=560" title="">hideous leaf-shaped real estate developments</a> in Dubai that can be seen from space. One king in Black Gold seeks to exploit the oil wealth; the other dreads the prospect of the desert&nbsp;teeming with big-voiced Texas&nbsp;oilmen and other rapacious western imperialists.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/21/jean-jacques-annaud-black-gold">Continue reading...</a>Jean-Jacques AnnaudFilmCultureArab and Middle East unrestWorld newsTue, 21 Feb 2012 21:31:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/21/jean-jacques-annaud-black-goldPhotograph: PR‘Antonio’s convinced he is an Arab’ … Antonio Banderas in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Black GoldPhotograph: PR‘Antonio’s convinced he is an Arab’ … Antonio Banderas in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Black GoldStuart Jeffries2012-02-21T21:31:01ZWolf-training follows tigers and bears for director Jean-Jacques Annaudhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/aug/20/annaud-wolf-totem-jiang-rong
French director to spend 18 months training wolves for film adaptation of Chinese bestseller Wolf Totem<p>He has worked with bears and tigers in two previous films, and now French film director Jean-Jacques Annaud is planning to spend 18 months breeding and training wolves for his adaptation of the bestselling but controversial Chinese novel Wolf Totem.</p><p>The director, who ran into problems with the Chinese authorities over his film Seven Years in Tibet, is likely to provoke more trouble with this latest project: the book has sold millions of copies in China but, critical of the Chinese mindset, has also been the centre of furious debate.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/aug/20/annaud-wolf-totem-jiang-rong">Continue reading...</a>Jean-Jacques AnnaudFilmBooksFilm adaptationsChinaAsia PacificThu, 20 Aug 2009 16:10:40 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/aug/20/annaud-wolf-totem-jiang-rongPhotograph: Getty ImagesAuthor Jiang Rong raised a wolf cub from birth. Photograph: Getty ImagesPhotograph: Getty ImagesAuthor Jiang Rong raised a wolf cub from birth. Photograph: Getty ImagesAlison Flood2009-08-20T16:10:40ZReel history: Enemy at the Gates is Stalingrad with cockney accentshttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/23/reel-history-enemy-at-the-gates
Jean-Jacques Annaud's portrayal of the siege of Stalingrad features Bob Hoskins as Khrushchev. Unfortunately it isn't a comedy<p><strong>Director:</strong> Jean-Jacques Annaud<br><strong>Entertainment grade:</strong> D+<br><strong>History grade:</strong> D–</p><p>The battle of Stalingrad (1942-43) was a pivotal engagement of the second world war between Nazi and Soviet forces. Combined military deaths came to almost 1.5 million, in addition to 500,000 civilians. The story of Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev, a sniper from the Urals who personally bagged somewhere between 250 and 500 Nazis, was championed by the Soviet press.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/23/reel-history-enemy-at-the-gates">Continue reading...</a>Jean-Jacques AnnaudPeriod and historicalFilmCultureBob HoskinsThu, 23 Oct 2008 07:00:09 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/23/reel-history-enemy-at-the-gatesPhotograph: KobalRussian affront ... Enemy at the Gates. Photograph: Kobal CollectionPhotograph: KobalRussian affront ... Enemy at the Gates. Photograph: Kobal CollectionAlex von Tunzelmann2008-10-23T07:00:09ZJean-Jacques Annaud risks more controversy with Kashmirhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/14/jean-jacques-annaud-kashmir
<p>He's already been banned from China after his film <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/71555/seven.years.in.tibet">Seven Years in Tibet</a> upset the communist authorities. Pretty soon it's likely Jean-Jacques Annaud won't be too popular in certain parts of the subcontinent: the Oscar-winning French director's next project looks likely to be the terrorism thriller Kashmir, set in the disputed region on the border of India and Pakistan.</p><p>In the story, which has been penned by DB Weiss, three ex-mercenaries head for the region after hearing that a terrorist leader with a $30m price on his head is going to be in town for a while. But it turns out that each of them has another reason for being in the area, and tensions mount as they near their objective.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/14/jean-jacques-annaud-kashmir">Continue reading...</a>Jean-Jacques AnnaudFilmCultureKashmirIndiaPakistanTue, 14 Oct 2008 09:45:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/14/jean-jacques-annaud-kashmirPhotograph: Farooq Khan/EPAA shikara crosses a lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir. Photograph: Farooq Khan/EPAPhotograph: Farooq Khan/EPAA shikara crosses a lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir. Photograph: Farooq Khan/EPABen Child2008-10-14T09:45:17ZAdaptation of the week No. 44: The Name of the Rosehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview8
Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose (1986)<p><strong> The author: </strong> Umberto Eco (b1932) wrote a thesis on Thomas Aquinas before being appointed professor of semiotics at Bologna University in 1961. His study of communication methodology, A Theory of Semiotics (1976), established him as a leading academic, as did Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language (1984), The Limits of Interpretation (1991) and Kant and the Platypus (1997). Eco also maintained a parallel journalistic and literary career, and The Name of the Rose (1980) was his first novel, building on his academic interest in medieval aesthetics. Its huge success prompted a second, Foucault's Pendulum (1988), and, though a year later Eco stated "it doesn't make much sense" to write a third, he has since published two more, The Island of the Day Before (1995) and Baudolino (2002).</p><p><strong> The story: </strong> In reconstructing the impassioned theoretical debate of a 14th-century Italian monastery and combining it with the more orthodox concerns of a conventional detective story, Eco set a much-imitated template for literary-historical thriller. His narrator is Adso of Melk, a novice monk accompanying William of Baskerville, a Franciscan emissary of the Holy Roman Emperor (referencing Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes tales). Baskerville's task is to debate theology with the papal inquisitor, but his visit is disrupted by a string of unexplained deaths, centred around the abbey's closely guarded library. Baskerville penetrates the library's secrets and solves the crime - the murders are committed to keep hidden the "lost" second volume of Aristotle's Poetics , by a monk convinced its subject, laughter, is heretical.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview8">Continue reading...</a>Jean-Jacques AnnaudBooksFilmCultureFilm adaptationsSat, 05 Feb 2005 01:41:58 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview8Andrew Pulver2005-02-05T01:41:58Z